


Radioactive

by Andromath



Series: Marvel ficlets [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Depressed Peter Parker, Depression, Disabled Character, Disabled peter parker, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Irondad, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Endgame, Precious Peter Parker, Sick Character, Sick Peter Parker, Suicidal Thoughts, Superfamily (Marvel), Terminal Illnesses, Whump, reclusive peter parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-10 21:28:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17433839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromath/pseuds/Andromath
Summary: Being a hero is more than having superpowers. Peter has to learn this lesson the hard way after his own powers turn against him.Thankfully Tony is there to pick up the pieces.





	Radioactive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tempestaurora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestaurora/gifts).



> So tempestaurora got me in an angsty mood with her newest fic, so I have an angsty AU for today. An AU about what it truly means to be a hero and help people! Only with Parker Luck in full swing!
> 
> The fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17372633/chapters/40882316

The spider bite had many unseen side effect on Peter’s body that were overshadowed by the more obvious abilities. But perhaps the worst was radiation poisoning. A hidden danger that lurked beneath Peter’s skin that even he was unaware of.

 

Fortunately, his healing would take care of any radiation long before it was even detectable on scanners and tests.

 

Unfortunately, his healing wasn’t unlimited. When Thanos snapped his fingers and his body began to disintegrate, his healing put everything it could into stopping it. This gave the radiation poisoning an opening and it started to multiply in Peter’s system.

 

When the Snap is undo, the damage of the radiation poisoning isn’t. His healing can’t keep up with both stopping the the radiation in his body AND the constantly replenishing source from the spider-bite.

 

Peter doesn’t notice right away, he just thinks he is tired from saving people. That the nose bleeds are caused by the change in weather. The diarrhea is from the Mexican food he and May ate last night. But Tony notices after Peter faints in the middle of stopping some bank robbers.

 

He gets taken to the Tower, which was still Stark Industries New York headquarters even most of the Avengers stuff was moved upstate. He is reviewed by Dr. Cho and Bruce, who discover the radiation poisoning.

 

Tony freaks out when he learns that Peter is dying, and maybe only has a few months left to live, depending on how long his healing holds out.

 

Tony, Helen and the world’s leading expert on radiation all set out to find a cure, and Bruce does find one. Unfortunately, it has a side-effect.

 

The serum will amplify Peter’s own healing factor to remove the radiation, but it’ll also cause the healing to attack Peter’s altered DNA and revert it - effectively meaning that Peter’s own powers will self-destruct. No more Spider-Man.

 

By the time its found, Peter is out of it. They’ve plied him with drugs for the pain, and they can’t ask him for his consent. They have to turn to May, who gives them the go ahead. Anything is worth saving her nephew.

 

When Peter wakes up, cured but weak, he is furious. Without spider-man, Peter doesn’t think he is worth anything. He is useless and can’t help people. When he begins throwing things at them, the group all learn to give him some space.

 

Unfortunately, by the time that Peter has calmed down enough that anyone but a nurse is allowed in his room, other side-effects have shown up. All of which devastate Peter even more.

 

The serum cured the radiation poisoning, but not the effects it had on Peter before it was cured. Peter’s immune system is compromised to the point it might never recover, leading to him being isolated to the Tower. Peter’s bones are now brittle and easily broken by daily activities.

 

Even if Tony built Peter a Iron Man suit, the G-forces would likely break every bone in his body. Peter would never be able to use the suits either.

 

Peter falls hard into a serious depression. He can no longer help people, he no longer has a purpose. On more than one occasion he contemplates just ending in. Because while he is alive, he isn’t alive. He is just going through the motions of living for the sake of going through the motions.

 

Tony tries to do his best to help. He hires a series of private tutors (mostly world leaders in science and technology) to continues Peter’s education. He creates specialized Avatars that Peter can control remotely, so that he can still at least have a social life outside of the Tower. He and Peter spent a lot of time in the lab together working on Avengers tech.

 

None of it is enough.

 

Tony himself has almost run out of options when, while moving some old spider-man gear, comes across Peter’s original web-fluid formula. He remembers Peter telling him that he developed it even before the Spider-bite, to be an emergency medical bandage. He has an idea.

 

He has the fluid patented under Peter’s name and had Stark Industries begin manufacturing it. A few months later, he bring the results to Peter and shows him how Peter’s idea has successfully been rolled out across 18 countries and saved approximately 30,000 lives already.

 

Peter is overwhelmed by how much his idea helped people and the world. As he is crying, Tony tells him about being a hero isn’t about superpowers or directly saving people. The most heroic thing Tony feels he ever did was to shut down Stark’s weapons manufacturing and turn the company to humanitarian concerns. While Iron Man has helped a lot of people over the years, it doesn’t come close to how many regular old Tony Stark has helped by creating prosthesis, medicine, water filtration systems and clean energy.

 

Peter is finally inspired knowing that it isn’t what he physically does that makes him a hero. It is his heart and his mind. He sets out on dozens of projects the next day designed to help people throughout the world.

 

Tony looks on proud, knowing that sometime soon he would be announcing that is reclusive protege would be the heir to Stark Industries. The world couldn’t be in better hands.


End file.
